Well, you could make an argument that governments of Russia, China and Iran all see the space programs as a matter of national pride. The US government treats NASA like it is barely worthy to pick the scraps out of the dumpster behind Congress.

While I want NASA's budget to increase by a bare minimum of 10X I have to point out a couple things....

1) we have a probe orbiting Saturn and Mars2) We have probes visiting Ceres, Mercury and Pluto.3) We have two rovers on Mars4) We have a plethora of orbiting telescopes and physics projects5) We are getting ready to launch the James Webb Telescope.

b2theory:While I want NASA's budget to increase by a bare minimum of 10X I have to point out a couple things....

1) we have a probe orbiting Saturn and Mars2) We have probes visiting Ceres, Mercury and Pluto.3) We have two rovers on Mars4) We have a plethora of orbiting telescopes and physics projects5) We are getting ready to launch the James Webb Telescope.

Yeah, sending meatbags into orbit is kind if overrated. The robots are out there doing the real science.

Finally, a 3d printer in space. Now we can really start interplanetary explorations. Mark my words, we'll all have our own personal bases on the Moon and Mars by the end of next month. Then in about 3 months we'll be interstellaring about. Laughing at Voyager.

FTFANASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

gingerjet:So much butthurt in this thread ... lets read the actual article.

FTFA NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

Wow ... something useful for our astronauts to use ...

I was wondering if the fail tag was for the printer or for the cat being launched into space. As you point out, that printer has a purpose in space, the cat really doesn't.

Given that space is huge, mostly empty and we really haven't found anywhere that humans can live outside of Earth, why is it bad that the U.S. space program is done now mostly with robots? Robots need less supplies that humans, will work longer and can go farther. Until we develop things like warp drive and have the ability to exploit the materials on other planets to build starships large enough to contain farms to raise animals and grow food on, the manned space mission is going to be very limited.

For the love of crap. They're sending the astronauts a 3D printer so they can make tools and make repairs on the ISS without having to wait six months for a resupply ship or whatever. They're also testing how to make 3D printing work in microgravity so that future ships and outposts away from easy resupply can do that too. They're not just launching the damn thing into a rocket to say we did it.

Great Janitor:gingerjet: So much butthurt in this thread ... lets read the actual article.

FTFA NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

Wow ... something useful for our astronauts to use ...

I was wondering if the fail tag was for the printer or for the cat being launched into space. As you point out, that printer has a purpose in space, the cat really doesn't.

According to the movie Alien, space cats add a much needed scare when they suddenly hiss and run from a space monster.

Slaxl:Finally, a 3d printer in space. Now we can really start interplanetary explorations. Mark my words, we'll all have our own personal bases on the Moon and Mars by the end of next month. Then in about 3 months we'll be interstellaring about. Laughing at Voyager.

I always laugh at Voyager. Did you see the one where Janeway and Paris turn into slugs and get bizzay? It was ridiculous.

Brilliant! The biggest expense is the cost of lifting a kilo to orbit. Instead of lifting thousands of kilos habitat, life support, water, food etc you lift one 3d printer and print habitat, life support etc.

/just remember to keep printing more printer ink//print a few photon torpedos incase China or Iran have nicer stations

Great Janitor:gingerjet: So much butthurt in this thread ... lets read the actual article.

FTFA NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

Wow ... something useful for our astronauts to use ...

I was wondering if the fail tag was for the printer or for the cat being launched into space. As you point out, that printer has a purpose in space, the cat really doesn't.

Russia sends three cosmonauts up to the ISS. China is planning to launch its first space station. Even Iran's space program is planning to send a cat into space. So what is NASA doing next? They're going to launch a 3D printer into space

Russia: NationChina: NationIran: NationNASA: Federal agency

If you want to compare national Space Peens then you need to include what all of America is doing, including private organizations. That changes the conversation dramatically.

Shrugging Atlas:Russia sends three cosmonauts up to the ISS. China is planning to launch its first space station. Even Iran's space program is planning to send a cat into space. So what is NASA doing next? They're going to launch a 3D printer into space

Russia: NationChina: NationIran: NationNASA: Federal agency

If you want to compare national Space Peens then you need to include what all of America is doing, including private organizations. That changes the conversation dramatically.

Who cares? Sending people into space is costly, dangerous and impractical at our current technological level. If you want to explore space then you send probes or robots. Mess up the math and crash with a rover (looking at you Beagle) thats a big waste o' money but you can try again. Do the same with a crew of astronauts and its a tragedy that puts all your future endeavors at risk.

Russia sends three cosmonauts up to the ISS. So fraking what? We've already done that.China is planning to launch its first space station.So fraking what? We've already done that.Even Iran's space program is planning to send a cat into space.So fraking what? We've already done that with various animals and with plenty of humans.So what is NASA doing next? They're going to launch a 3D printer into space. Okay, name one country that has done this already.

Sending a cat up into space is somehow more important than trying to solve for some of the problems illustrated in Apollo 13?

(Okay, maybe without power, they wouldn't have been able to print whatever tool they wanted, but you get the point.)

Great Janitor:Given that space is huge, mostly empty and we really haven't found anywhere that humans can live outside of Earth, why is it bad that the U.S. space program is done now mostly with robots? Robots need less supplies that humans, will work longer and can go farther. Until we develop things like warp drive and have the ability to exploit the materials on other planets to build starships large enough to contain farms to raise animals and grow food on, the manned space mission is going to be very limited.

I think it's more telling that 'other nations reach for the technological boundaries to match the US' is read as 'OMG AMERICA IS DEAD AND USELESS' by submitter.

Spaceflight isn't simple, but more and more countries are reaching the technological and financial points where they can do it, and it's a massive achievement. It also means they can launch their own spy, commercial, etc. satellites.

Hell, the private sector has reached that point, it makes sense for countries to.

It's cool how the Fox news trailer park crowd have been figuring things out lately. For one thing, after 60 years, they suddenly realized that America's foreign policy sucks. And now, miracle of miracles, they seem to suddenly have decided that science, of all things, is good.Thanks, Obama.And I mean that.

gingerjet:So much butthurt in this thread ... lets read the actual article.

FTFA NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

b2theory:While I want NASA's budget to increase by a bare minimum of 10X I have to point out a couple things....

1) we have a probe orbiting Saturn and Mars2) We have probes visiting Ceres, Mercury and Pluto.3) We have two rovers on Mars4) We have a plethora of orbiting telescopes and physics projects5) We are getting ready to launch the James Webb Telescope.

In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation's space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to "re-inspire children" to study science and math, to "expand our international relationships," and to "reach out to the Muslim world." Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is "perhaps foremost," because it will help Islamic nations "feel good" about their scientific accomplishments.

In the same interview, Bolden also said the United States, which first sent men to the moon in 1969, is no longer capable of reaching even low earth orbit without help from other nations.

jso2897:It's cool how the Fox news trailer park crowd have been figuring things out lately. For one thing, after 60 years, they suddenly realized that America's foreign policy sucks. And now, miracle of miracles, they seem to suddenly have decided that science, of all things, is good.Thanks, Obama.And I mean that.

If they cared about science no one would complain that we're not sending people into space. We do a ridiculous amount of science considering the budget NASA has to work with; very little of it has anything to do with humans in LEO. No, this is the same shiat they've always cared about: MURICA! and her greatness (and criticizing the other guys). Sending people into space is seen as a show of technological strength to these people, nothing more.

The research and work NASA is doing is what future generations will rely on to advance space exploration. Showboating by putting humans is space is passe. As always we're the ones who put the hard work and dedication into the less attractive tasks that everyone else will use.

Mad_Radhu:b2theory: While I want NASA's budget to increase by a bare minimum of 10X I have to point out a couple things....

1) we have a probe orbiting Saturn and Mars2) We have probes visiting Ceres, Mercury and Pluto.3) We have two rovers on Mars4) We have a plethora of orbiting telescopes and physics projects5) We are getting ready to launch the James Webb Telescope.

Yeah, sending meatbags into orbit is kind if overrated. The robots are out there doing the real science.

Except we need those ocassional manned flights to keep people interested. Nobody really gives a damn anymore about the five-hundredth photo of one of Jupiters moons, a newly discovered star or planet that's really just a few orange pixels, or pictures of a bunch of red rocks on Mars.

Just another of my inebriated rantings, but I've said it before and I'll say it again. When, during the last GOP presidential primary, everyone ridiculed Newt Gingrich for his "moon colony" idea, I did not. Not because he isn't a douchebag, and not because it was feasible. At least he was thinking big. What happened to America? Our "never give up, never think things through" mentality? We used to have big ideas and big dreams. Everything has become so parochial now.

I'm fairly young, so I'm not being wistful. I'm simply wondering what the hell happened to our adventurous side? Our willingness to recklessly advance? To take risk? Have we become so damn complacent that clinging to the remnants of the 20th century economy is more important than the future? Hell, not even a 20th century economy, but "Honey Boo Boo" and whatever mind-numbing dreck they shill on t.v. now (Breaking Bad excluded, of course). Too many have given too much for something so myopic.

Jim_Callahan:Eh, manned spaceflight is proof-of-concept stuff. The US has already proved the concept, at this point putting meat in space beyond manning the ISS is just the engineering version of masturbation.

Mad_Radhu:b2theory: While I want NASA's budget to increase by a bare minimum of 10X I have to point out a couple things....

1) we have a probe orbiting Saturn and Mars2) We have probes visiting Ceres, Mercury and Pluto.3) We have two rovers on Mars4) We have a plethora of orbiting telescopes and physics projects5) We are getting ready to launch the James Webb Telescope.

Yeah, sending meatbags into orbit is kind if overrated. The robots are out there doing the real science.

</ fingers crossed></ whisper>Please, be a poe. Please, be a poe. Please, be a poe.

Russia sends two cosmonauts & one American astronaut up to the ISS. China is planning to launch its first space station by 2023. Even Iran's space program is planning to photoshop a cat into space. So what is the United States doing?

- Developing capabilities to mine asteroids & crowd-sourcing space telescopes to pay for it.- Developing launch vehicles that are reusable. IE: Space X may preform the first reusable first stage recovery flight as early as February 2014.- Developing two heavy lift vehicles. SLS & Falcon Heavy.- Developing at least four manned orbital spaceflight alternatives to increase capability.- Exiting the solar system with the first interstellar spacecraft.- Developing a 100 year road map towards a manned interstellar spacecraft.- Currently Exploring: Mercury, the moon, Saturn & its moons, the sun, Mars (with two rovers/two orbiters), the earth, asteroids, the universe- Future Exploring Missions: Pluto, Jupiter, exoplanets- Developing the first US moon lander, admittedly an unmanned one at that and probably after the unmanned Chang 3 lander.- Developing techniques that will help future astronauts become truly sustainable without the need for regular cargo runs from earth. IE: 3D printers & growing veggies to sustain the crew. Yes, it isn't exactly a replicator from Star Trek, but you have to start somewhere don't'cha?

So what is the US doing in spite of having a political system that is broken? Plenty.

gingerjet:So much butthurt in this thread ... lets read the actual article.

FTFA NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

Wow ... something useful for our astronauts to use ...

well start with a toaster... to make parts for a bigger toaster... and those in turn make bigger toasters... and pretty soon its spitting out spaceships....

So what is the US doing in spite of having a political systemthat is broken that can't handle the fact that the darkie won a second term and totally ruined a perfectly good chance to start WW III with Iran? Plenty.

If Iran launches a cat into space, I wonder if it will be a Siamese? Calico? I'm drawing a blank here.